US police shooting: Los Angeles neighbourhood like no other in America

The neighbourhood where an unarmed homeless man was shot dead by police in broad daylight on Sunday is unlike any other in the United States, says Reverend Andy Bales.

The shooting, which has gone viral around the world after it was captured on a mobile phone and provoked fresh discussion about the use of excessive force by police in the US, happened right outside the Union Rescue Mission in Skid Row. Bales is the chief executive of the mission, which provides services to a highly vulnerable community racked by homelessness, drug addiction and poverty. The man who was killed, known as "Africa" by his friends, lived in a tent just outside.

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LA police shoot dead homeless man

WARNING: GRAPHIC IMAGES Footage posted to social media captures the moment Los Angeles police pin a homeless man to the ground, Taser him and then open fire.

"There's nothing like Skid Row in any other major city in the US," Bales said.

"There are a few thousand people living on the streets in tents and boxes, addicted to drugs. Right next to [the deceased man's] tent was a self-cleaning restroom that's used as a shooting gallery for heroin, across the street it's crack cocaine sales from a gang."

Ceola Waddell, 58, a homeless man who says he witnessed the police shooting on Sunday, stands by a memorial for the victim in downtown Los Angeles. Photo: Richard Vogel

Video of Africa's death shows him in a violent scuffle with police. The police force him to the ground and someone can be heard yelling repeatedly "drop the gun". At least four officers are surrounding him as five shots are fired. The man died at the scene. Police say he had tried to grab an officer's gun before the shooting.

The mission's CCTV footage shows the man in an altercation with another homeless person in a neighbouring tent about 40 minutes before the police arrived, Bales said. Later, police arrived and tried to get him out of his tent.

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Bales said the man who died was known to him and his staff, and that there were "a lot of broken hearts" there today. Africa was a kind person but someone who could behave erratically, he said.

"I encountered him a few times as I drove in and drove out ... one time he had his tent across the entrance and exit to our parking ramp, and I just kindly asked him to move … and he kindly moved his tent out of the way," Bales said.

"I viewed him as kind and gentle. Our guys experienced him being helpful at times ... but I also saw him dart out of his tent one time and knock a passerby's goods out of his hand."

On another occasion, the man threatened one of Bales' workers, he said.

But he could not say if the man was suffering from a mental illness.

"I wouldn't want to attribute the fact to mental illness because anyone who lived - if I lived even one night - on the streets of Skid Row, I would exhibit a lot of erratic behaviour as well," he said.

"It's really an untenable environment to live in and I think it's a really untenable environment for police to keep the peace in."

The local branch of the US' peak civil liberties group said on Monday it was "extremely troubled" by the shooting and called for the footage from the body-camera worn by one of the officers to be released as soon as possible.

"The Skid Row community has seen years of heavy suppression policing by LAPD," said Hector Villagra, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

"The Police Commission must do more than investigate the moments leading up to the shooting. It must take a hard look at the broader approach to policing in Skid Row — the deployment of officers, the strategies they employ, their relationship with the community, the patterns of use of force, and the training they are given to identify and deal with individuals with mental illness."

The shooting death has again raised questions about the use of lethal force against people in the US, particularly unarmed black men.

It follows the high-profile shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the death of Eric Garner in New York City, who died after being forced into a choke-hold by police, both last year. A 12-year-old boy, Tamir Rice, was also shot dead by police in Cleveland while playing with a pellet gun in a neighbourhood park.

Last month police in Washington state repeatedly shot and killed a Mexican immigrant, Antonio Zambrano-Montes, who had reportedly been throwing rocks at cars.

The deaths have provoked a heated national discussion about police brutality and the use of excessive force, especially against minorities. The Black Lives Matter protest movement has grown in response to the incidents.

"Testimony and facts are still being collected and assessed. Until that investigation concludes, the LAPPL urges everyone to reserve their judgment as there is much to learn about the incident," they said.

"In fact, audio heard on a video recording during the incident clearly suggests that the officers felt they were in life-threatening danger."

"Officers may be compelled to use force when there is an objectively reasonable certainty that there could be injury to themselves or someone else. As tragic as these situations are, law enforcement officers absolutely have the right to defend their life or the life of another."

Los Angeles has the second highest number of homeless people of any city in America, with about 54, 000 people living on the streets or in shelters, according to a 2013 national report.

Bales said he did not want to judge police actions but that some rethinking of tactics may be necessary to stop things reaching the lethal conclusion they did on Sunday.

"Perhaps specially trained police … if they know or suspect that the subject is unarmed that they go in unarmed with a couple of officers standing back who are armed, try to take down the individual and arrest the individual without a concern about protecting their gun from the individual," he said.

"What I've seen is the police have to go in with one hand on their weapon to try to protect it, one hand on the individual to try to wrestle, and that really doesn't work."

Footage of the shooting was posted on Facebook by a user named Anthony Blackburn. It quickly went viral in the US, with social media users tagging their posts #LAPD shooting.

The Union Rescue Mission has provided its CCTV footage of the incident to the police.